Regarded as one of the greatest Blues performers of all time, Stevie Ray Vaughan only put out four studio albums before his career tragically came to an end in 1990 when he was killed in a helicopter crash at the age of 35. Brian May, the renowned guitarist for Queen, was among the several musicians who expressed their thoughts about the late guitarist throughout the years.
What is Brian May’s opinion on Stevie Ray Vaughan
In 2019, Brian May honored Stevie Ray Vaughan by sharing a little video of the Blues guitarist performing a solo on his Instagram feed. He said, “Ow ow ow !!! Listen to those wonderful juicy notes !! This is a man to stan ! This is the kind of guitar playing that melts me. Stevie Ray Vaughan, lost in a world of his own. He allows his fingers to be a channel for the burning passions inside him.”
“Like Jimi Hendrix, he effortlessly makes his guitar sing to us, speak to us of wonders beyond words. Even with both hands behind his back !!!! I so wish I had met SRV. But one of the favourite moments in my life was when one of his friends told me, after he was gone, that he liked my playing. But this man was truly one of guitar playing’s greatest champions. An elemental monster. Check him out, all ye who would bend strings !!!”
May also gave the Texan guitarist high marks during an interview with Guitar World in 2020, following his election as the magazine’s all-time greatest guitarist by readers. The performer acknowledged the honor and recognized a few deserving candidates:
“I think when people see this poll, I can see the comments saying, ‘Well, what about Stevie Ray Vaughan?’ And they’re all going to be right. You know, ‘Where’s Steve Vai? Where’s Joe Satriani?’”
Brian said, “It’s true because there’s such an amazing rainbow of players that, really, you don’t want to be putting them in any kind of hierarchy. You just want to be enjoying the special stuff that they bring. Anyway, I’m hugely happy! Maybe that’s contradictory, but that’s the way I feel.”
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Vaughan grew up in Dallas, Texas. Inspired by his older brother Jimmie, he picked up the guitar at the age of seven. In 1971, he dropped out of high school and relocated to Austin.
After playing with a number of bands, Stevie was hired by Marc Benno’s Nightcrawlers and later by Denny Freeman’s Cobras, with whom he remained employed until the end of 1977.
After that, he started Triple Threat Revue, his own band. However, after bringing up bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, he called them Double Trouble. Following his 1982 appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, he became well-known. In 1983, his first studio album, Texas Flood, peaked at number 38 on the chart. More than 500,000 copies of the commercially successful release were sold. In 1989 and 1990, Vaughan led the way on solo performance tours alongside Jeff Beck and Joe Cocker.
2015 saw guitarist John Mayer induct Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During his address, Mayer proclaimed that Vaughan was the “ultimate guitar hero.” Jimmie Vaughan, a blues guitarist, had a younger brother named Vaughan.